I’m starting to see a pattern.

Actually I’ve seen it for a while and it keeps
getting worse.

It’s the problem of young athletes (17 and younger)
specializing in one sport and playing it year round.

What’s worse is many of these athletes play one
sport 12 months per year and then play other sports
at the same time for the school team.

Where I live it’s soccer. Some club teams hustle
you by making you commit to say, winter and spring
soccer when you try out in the fall.

So while I’m trying to get kids in shape for the
sport season they’re currently in, these kids are
off playing soccer games once or twice a week.

Then *some* parents and athletes have the audacity to
get upset when the coach ignores, dismisses or
replaces their uncommitted, over trained, entitled
athlete.

I’ve seen it literally drive coaches into early
retirement.

I try to figure out why parents think it’s a good
idea to play a kid on 4 different soccer teams,
12 months per year.

The way I see it the only arguments are:

1. They think their kid is the 1 out of 100 that
is going to earn an athletic scholarship.

2. The club coach sells them a line of BS that
they believe to be true.

3. Ignorance in the true sense of the word: to be
uninformed or unaware.

It’s probably a combination of all three.

Here’s the deal:

Kids should be encouraged to play a wide variety
of sports, not focus on one.

Training should focus on developing fundamental
movement skills that are universal. The shouldn’t
be repeating the same finite number of movements
over and over. That just leads to overuse injuries.

Because they aren’t going to be the next Tiger
Woods, Michael Jordan or Tom Brady.

Sorry.

In fact, taking a break from their ‘primary’ sport
to play another sport will actually make athletes
better at that ‘primary’ sport.

It’ll make them hungry to play, keep them from
getting stale, reduce injury, improve overall
athleticism, etc.

Now, if you’re one of those coaches or parents who
thinks it’s a good idea to have kids specialize
in one sport at a young age, you’re probably
pretty defensive right now.

You’re thinking ‘Who the hell is this guy to tell
me what to do with my kid/athlete?’

Point taken.

So don’t just take my word for it.

Listen to people who are smarter than me.

Recently I interviewed Duane Carlisle. Duane has
owned several sports training facilities, served
as a speed coach for multiple professional sports
teams and currently serves as the Head Strength
and Conditioning coach of the NFL’s San Francisco
49ers.

So if you don’t believe me, believe Duane:

http://www.audioacrobat.com/play/WWXl1C3s

Ok still not convinced? That’s cool.

I also spoke to Al Vermeil a little while back.

Al Vermeil is the only strength coach to have
World Championship rings from BOTH the NFL and
the NBA. He is also the only strength coach who
has been in the NFL, NBA and Major League Baseball.

Al was honored by being one of the initial
inductees to the Strength Coaches Hall of Fame
in June 2003.

So what does Al think about ’sport specialization’?

This audio clip is just over 7 minutes long. The last
3 minutes are absolutely critical to every coach,
parent and athlete. I think it will change the
way you look at things:

http://www.audioacrobat.com/play/WrMBZ0Ds
From a team coaching standpoint, I coach track and
field. At the end of the season, kids ask me what
they should do to stay in shape. My response is
always the same:

Anything that doesn’t have anything to do with track.

I’d love to have kids run Junior Olympics and other
summer meets. But swimming, playing basketball,
football, soccer, etc. is going to make them look
forward to track season and make them better overall
athletes, which can only help them when they come
back to me in the winter.

Because it’s not about what’s best for Latif. It’s about
what’s best for the health and well being of the athlete.

And we all need a reminder of that fact every once in
a while.

To your success,

Latif Thomas

P.S. How do you develop fundamental movements skills
and overall athletic ability that applies to all
athletes in all sports?

–> http://www.CompleteSpeedTraining.com

With each passing day I seem to be getting more
and more track and field specific questions from
CST customers and 9/10 of CST consults are with track
coaches, parents and athletes.

With my foundation and background being in track
and field and having had another successful season
coaching athletes to school records and multiple
state championships, it got me thinking…

Maybe it’s time to create a Track Sprints (100-400)
resource along the same lines as Complete Speed
Training.

The ability to focus on track, combined with all the
insight I’ve picked up since creating the original
Complete Speed Training, really gets me excited
thinking about the possibilities!

However, it doesn’t matter if you aren’t interested
in such a program.

So before I start creating something no one wants,
I need your help.

Please take a few minutes to participate in this brief
survey so I know whether to start putting this
program together or go back to focusing on other
projects:

http://tinyurl.com/5xdjsj
Thank you for your time.

Latif Thomas

One of the main questions I get about Complete
Speed Training is:

‘It *sounds* good, but does it work?’

And that’s a pretty fair question. It’s the first
and most important question you should ask.

And I can show you countless testimonials and
success stories from happy coaches, parents and
athletes who *know* it works.

But I also get that some of you are skeptical about
whether or not those people even exist. Because the
truth is that some people make those testimonials
up.

So at the end of the day, it boils down to this:

Can I actually make people faster?

This year I came into a new program of kids I had
never met. I implemented my Complete Speed Training
program.

The first major result:

In just 12 weeks the girls took 2.67 seconds off
their school record and won an indoor 4×200 meter
State Championship.

Fast forward to yesterday’s MA State Championship.

Despite brutal heat, the 4×100 meter relay team
continued this season’s undefeated run and earned
the girl’s second State Title in less than 4
months, beating the best of the rest of the State
by a convincing .55 seconds and establishing
another school record.

So congratulations to my girls for another job
well done!

It’s truly an overwhelming feeling to see the look
of excitement and pride on kids’ faces after
succeeding at the highest levels.

And it’s an experience you and your athletes can
experience as well. It just takes making some
shifts in your approach to training.

The good news is you can use the exact same speed
development system that I use with my athletes to
keep them a step ahead of the competition.

There are plenty of programs on the market for you
to choose from, but the proof is in the pudding.

http://www.CompleteSpeedTraining.com

Now that I think about it, I can’t decide whether
or not I like the 200 or the 400 better.

There are nuances to training, competing and coaching
both that make them quite different.

In high school I was a fairly decent 400 runner,
though I had *no* idea what I was doing. But in
college I focused on the 200 and was relatively
successful there.

As a coach I’ve probably been more successful with
400 runners, though I’m having a pretty good year
with the 200 with my athletes having won an all
state title in the 4×200 indoors and a conference
and divisional state title so far this spring.

Am I saying this to tell you how cool I am? Not at
all. Most of the coaches whose brains I pick could
coach circles around me.

Then again that’s why I go to them. You can’t get
better at anything unless you surround yourself
with people who are more successful than you are.

I do have a point in all this…

Lately I’ve been getting slammed with questions
from track coaches. Generally 7 out of 10 questions
I get are track related (step it up non-track
coaches!), but that percentage has gone up in the
last two weeks.

I know the spring season is coming to a close, but
for that reason I thought I’d share with you an
article I wrote recently on coaching, training and
competing at 200 meters:

200 Meter Training

I think you’ll like it. When you’re done, I’d like
to hear what you think. You can ‘rate’ the article
by clicking on one of the 5 stars at the bottom
of the article. Your rating will help me decide
whether or not to keep writing articles like this
one.
To your success,

Latif Thomas
200 Meter Training

P.S. Just to get your 200m juices flowing, check
out this link to the fastest 200m ever run:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=NIQ5S3TqgP0

…Incredible!!!!